Candidates Tournament Round 13

There was a very tense atmosphere in round 13 of the London Candidates Tournament - the penultimate day of the competition. Both Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen were absolutely determined to win their games against Boris Gelfand and Teimour Radjabov respectively.

Vladimir Kramnik had the advantage of the white pieces and played the novel idea 5.e3 in a fianchetto Gruenfeld sideline, putting Gelfand under great pressure and eventually winning a pawn. But Gelfand was tenacious in defence, finding the crucial move 38...Rd8 as the time control approached to save the game.

A relaxed Boris Gelfand before the game

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Kramnik pressed hard, but Gelfand was equal to the task

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Magnus Carlsen had the black pieces against Teimour Radjabov, and opted for the Nimzo-Indian after Radjabov played 1.d4. Radjabov slowly drifted into a slightly worse endgame, and Carlsen kept trying everything he could to keep the game alive and induce a mistake from his opponent. Deep into the 6th hour of the game Radjabov was surviving almost solely on the 30 second time increment and Carlsen picked up a vital pawn. Finally, incredibly, after nearly 7 hours of play Carlsen won the game!

The first game to finish today was the encounter between Peter Svidler and Vassily Ivanchuk. The spinning roulette wheel that seems to determine Chucky's choice of opening in this tournament stopped today at the French Defence. Svidler obtained a pleasant game with the advance variation and as Ivanchuk struggled to cope with his inferior position he lost on time for the fifth time in the tournament.

Despite his loss to Vladimir Kramnik yesterday, Lev Aronian still had a mathematical chance of winning the tournament, but even that minuscule possibility vanished when he only drew with Alexander Grischuk, in the second game to finish today.

Alexander Grischuk and Lev Aronian drew their game

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So Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik both have a score of 8½/13 going into the final round tomorrow. But Carlsen has the superior tie-break score, so as long as he achieves at least the same result as Kramnik he will win the tournament. Carlsen has white against Svidler, and Kramnik has black against Ivanchuk.

The standings after 13 rounds

Name

Fed

Elo

Pts

Magnus Carlsen

NOR

2872

8½

Vladimir Kramnik

RUS

2810

8½

Peter Svidler

RUS

2747

7

Levon Aronian

ARM

2809

7

Boris Gelfand

ISR

2740

6

Alexander Grischuk

RUS

2764

6

Vassily Ivanchuk

UKR

2757

5

Teimour Radjabov

AZE

2793

4

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The 2013 Candidates Tournament runs from 14 March - 2 April in London, with the winner earning the right to challenge current world champion Vishy Anand for the title.

The tournament is an 8-player double round-robin event and the venue is The IET at 2 Savoy Place on the banks of the river Thames. The total prize fund is €510,000 (approx 665,000 USD).

All rounds start at 14:00 GMT, and the time control is 2 hours for 40 moves, then an extra hour added for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes more with a 30 second increment to finish.